Inspiration
by phoebenpiper
Summary: A missing scene from HSM1. Kelsi observes the Evans twins rehearsing.


**Inspiration** -- by phoebenpiper

Kelsi hurried towards the theatre, secretly thankful that both Troy and Gabriella had canceled on her. While she was really enjoying working with the two of them, helping them prepare for callbacks, she hadn't had any alone-time with a piano for DAYS, and she desperately wanted to work on the Act I finale. Something just working right in the middle eight, and she wanted to see if modifying the chord progression in the accompaniment would fix it.

However, as Kelsi opened the backstage door to the theatre, she realized that she wasn't the only one planning to use the stage after school. She instantly recognized the voices of the Evanses carrying through the wings.

Or, more specifically, she heard Sharpay barking at Ryan about the choreography they were working on:

"We are NOT doing any jazz squares for callbacks, Ryan. In fact, I think your jazz squares are precisely why we're HAVING callbacks, instead of getting instantly cast like in past auditions."

"You don't think it's because for the first time in the history of East High we actually had COMPETITION for the pairs audition?"

"Whatever, Ryan! We need to FOCUS if we're to make this the best routine EVER so Ms. Darbus will have no CHOICE but to cast us, competition or not. Now, let's start at the beginning again and put together everything we've come up with so far."

As Ryan and Sharpay started to dance, singing at half-voice in two different keys as they slowly went through their steps, Kelsi quietly snuck up through the wings and took a seat on the piano bench. Kelsi knew there was a piano in the choir room that she could probably use, but she'd decided to put off working on her own song to watch the twins work on theirs. As a fellow artist, Kelsi was fascinated by the creative process and wanted to see how the Evanses put together their routines. So she sat on the bench and silently peaked over the piano, watching the performers work.

The Evanses had decided not to use one of Kelsi's songs for callbacks; instead, they seemed to be doing a Latin number, which involved lots of shimmying and fancy legwork.

And after only five minutes of watching the twins, Kelsi had the secret of their partnership figured out. Ryan, it turned out, was a far superior dancer to his sister, and Sharpay was expending all of her energy designing choreography that would hide this fact from the world. Kelsi wondered if Ryan was truly unaware that he was the better dancer or if he simply was afraid to cross his sister -- Kelsi guessed that it was probably a combination of the two.

Not that she blamed Ryan. Almost everyone at EHS, including Kelsi herself, had experienced Sharpay's wrath. Occasionally someone would fight back, but THEY didn't have to share a home with her. It only made sense that Ryan would constantly give in to keep the peace, but Kelsi wondered if he, too, had his limits.

"Ow!" Sharpay cried out as her head crashed into Ryan's elbow for the third time in a row during a complicated twisting turn. "How many times do I have to tell you to raise your right arm when I'm passing underneath?!"

"Sorry -- I forgot." Ryan's voice couldn't have sounded more sincere, but Kelsi thought she saw a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

'So he IS fighting back,' Kelsi realized, impressed at Ryan's passive-aggressive tactics and wondering how good it would feel if SHE could bonk Sharpay in the head a few times.

The twins repeated the turn, and this time Sharpay made it through unscathed. Continuing on, Sharpay demanded, "We should probably just pose for the next line, and then I can sing solo: 'Show some muscle.'" Sharpay raised her left arm, demonstrating her bicep.

Ryan spun his hands in front of him, singing, "Do the hustle," as he spun around.

Sharpay was not happy. "Absolutely not, Ryan!"

Her brother stopped dancing and stared blankly back at his twin. "Why not?"

"Because disco is DEAD, Ryan." Sharpay put her hand to her chin as she thought aloud, "There must be something else that rhymes with 'muscle.'"

"Take it back."

Ryan's voice was so soft, Kelsi barely heard it, yet she detected a firmness in it she was not used to hearing from the blond boy.

Sharpay didn't seem to notice. "Let's see -- 'wear a bustle'? 'Start a tussle'? How about 'hear the rustle', like the rustle of the stage curtains? Or do you think that's too obscure?"

"Take it back."

Ryan's voice was slightly louder this time, but his sister still continued unphased.

"Or we could do a near-rhyme, like 'feet can shuffle' or 'eat a--.'"

"TAKE IT BACK!!!"

Sharpay jumped backwards as if she'd been slapped, and Kelsi almost fell off the piano bench. Never had the tiny composer heard such forcefulness from the boy wearing the sparkling pink hat.

And apparently neither had his sister.

"What are you going on about, Ryan?" Sharpay asked once the initial shock had subsided. "Take WHAT back?"

"DISCO IS NOT DEAD! TAKE IT BACK!"

Kelsi was terrified by the boy's angry tone, but obviously it no longer had any effect on Sharpay, for she merely started to laugh.

"Don't be ridiculous, Ryan," Sharpay told her brother in a dismissive tone. "Disco died a decade before we were born, and the sooner you learn to accept that, the sooner you'll--WHERE are you going?!"

Kelso had prepared herself for another blast of anger from Ryan; instead, he'd merely turned and walked away from his sister in the middle of her lecture, enraging her.

"I'm taking a break," Ryan said calmly, sitting down on a lower rung of the stage ladder, which had been used just last week to hang lights.

"You can't take a break now," Sharpay said, clearly annoyed with her brother. "We haven't even finished choreographing the entire routine yet, and we need to get that done this afternoon so we have time to polish the dance before callbacks."

But Ryan didn't budge from the ladder. "No!" he replied like a petulant toddler. "Not until you take it back."

Sharpay sighed frustratedly. "I'm not gonna be blackmailed into taking back a true statement, Ryan!"

"And I'M not gonna dance until you DO!"

Sharpay stood in the middle of the stage for a moment, shaking with rage. She then rushed towards her twin, grabbing his arm and dragging him to his feet. "THIS IS STUPID!"

"YES IT IS!" Ryan said, wresting his arm free and quickly ascending the ladder to avoid her clutches.

"RYAN!" Sharpay yelled, stomping her foot as she glared up at her brother.

But suddenly her entire expression changed. The anger was instantly gone, replaced instead by...

Inspiration?

"Put out your left hand," she said in her usual bossy tone, taking a step back from the ladder.

Ryan was so used to following Sharpay's directions that, despite his anger, automatically he did as he was told.

"That's it!" Sharpay said excitedly. "We can finish our routine posing on either side of the ladder. It'll be PERFECT! It'll give us the levels that our routine's been missing. And we can even decorate it, to give us additional sparkle, too. Oh Ryan, this'll be fabulous!"

Sharpay clapped her hands together, happy to have figured it out and eager to put her new idea into practice. "Now get down from there, Ry, so we can finish the rest of the routine."

Ryan took two steps down before remembering he was still mad. "Not until--"

"Okay, okay," Sharpay said impatiently. "Disco is not dead."

Ryan shook his head. "You're a better actress than that, Shar -- say it like you mean it."

Sharpay sighed frustratedly. Then she put on her sweetest smile and said sincerely, "Disco is not dead, my dear brother."

"And?" he prompted.

Sharpay's smile faded. "'AND' what?!"

"And you'll let me 'do the hustle' in our routine." Ryan almost fell off the ladder as he did air-quotes around the lyrics.

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Ryan, there's no way I--"

Kelsi did not see anything in Ryan's expression change, but obviously Sharpay did for she never finished her sentence. Instead, she sighed again, this time in defeat, and reluctantly agreed, "And you can 'do the hustle' in our routine."

Ryan immediately came down the ladder without a fuss. He didn't even rub Sharpay's defeat in her face; he merely took his position center stage and said, "Now where were we?"

As the twins resumed their routine, Kelsi smiled to herself and quietly exited out the backstage door. She'd gotten to see what she'd stayed for -- the creative process at work.

And if she'd also gotten to see Ryan Evans get his own way, perhaps for the first time in history...well, that was merely icing on the cake!

THE END


End file.
